>> good morning. i am heather childers. >> i am patti ann browne. it is wednesday october 24th. thank you for watching "fox & friends first". we begin with a fox news alert. even more evidence em americaing now that the obama administration knew right away that the benghazi terror attack was not caused by a spontaneous protest over a video. >> state department e-mails one shows an al qaeda linked group claimed responsibility for the attack as it happened. molly henneberg is live.

>> these e-mails were sent on september 11th as the attack was unfolding in libya. they were sent in real time by the state department to about 300 to 400 national security officials. in the white house situation room, the fbi, director of national intelligence and state department they say a terrorist group had claimed responsibility for the attack. let's go through the earliest e-mail. e-mail number one 4:05 eastern time on 9-11. it says quote u.s. in benghazi under attack. svu, sensitive but unclassified. it goes on quote proximate patly 20 armed people fired shots. explosions have been heard as well. ambassador stevens currently in benghazi and four personnel are in the compound safe haven. the next e-mail 50 minutes later update number one u.s. diplomatic mission in benghazi

svu the firing has stopped and the compound has been cleared. a response team on-site is attempting to locate personnel. and this third e-mail. 6:07 p.m. eastern time on 9-11. it says the group claims responsibility -- the subject line is update number 2 al suria claims responsibility. the group claimed responsibility on facebook and twitter has called for an attack on embassy tripoli. the state department designated him as an al qaeda affiliated group trying to set up in eastern libya. this story just began breaking late last night. so far today no comment from the white house or state department yet as to why obama administration officials were calling this a spontaneous reaction to an internet video for weeks afterward. back to you in new york. these latest developments about the attack on our libyan

consulate are what john bolton and sarah palin are talking about this morning. >> ambassador tore bolton going on the record telling greta van susteren that this shows they knew what happened from the beginning but there was also a coverup. >> what these i mails now show beyond any doubt is the state department was fully possessed of the information in real time. it will leads to the question, why the administration asked for assessments. one is also tempted to ask why didn't the cia ask the state department what was going on. the one thing i didn't understand about how this played out on september 11th and the day after is why the entire pop levels of administration weren't on red alert over this. i can't speak for what happens inside the obama administration. any administration i had been in the president and top advisors

would have been on this immedia immediately around the clock. >> what could the motivation be? one is the coverup motive. these e-mails say to knme if anybody could think they could cover this up with documentary evidence in real time it wasn't just a coverup it was an incredibly stupid coverup. it may be further proof of the ideology ex lan nation there's a screen over consciousness that prevents them from seeing reality when it is put right in front of them. >> sarah palin also fired up about the new developments this morning. she is slamming the obama administration for quote lie to go the american people. >> 300 to 400 obama administration officials knew that this benghazi attack was a terrorist attack. yet they went out there and they lied to the american people for weeks on end. now these 300 to 400 people in

the obama administration who received these e-mails in real time knowing this was an attack they are friends with people in the mainstream media they party with the people in the mainstream media. it is not the mainstream media busting out the truth. they protected obama and his people and the administration allowing the lie to be perpetuate to do continue for all of these peeks the attack due to some benign video that no one really has seen a trailer of a video on youtube. it's ridiculous. >> a lot of unanswered questions there. time for your 5@5:00. the top five stories making news at this hour. a sign the u.s. intends to keep adding names to the list. >> the obama administration lining up a blue print. the list contains suspect names laid out against resources

available to track them down. the report also reveals the number of militants and civilians killed by u.s. drones is nearing 3,000. republican senator lindsay graham does not accept the defense department classification of fort hood shooting as workplace violence. he said it is a terrorist attack and wants the government to say that. th it is not fair to the victims and their families for this incident to be described as workplace violence. victims and families recently launched a new campaign to get the attack labeled as terror. yesterday the pentagon released a statement saying it will not reclassify it. two teenaged brothers charged with murdering a new jersey girl because they wanted her bike. nearly a,000 people pack add church last night to remember autumn pasquale. she was last seen 12 years old

leaving home on other bmx bikes. a 15-year-old and 17-year-old lured autumn to their home promising to trade bike parts then they strangled her and dumped her body in a recycling bin. >> it is pretty pathetic. it is sad. we want to know the reasons why. >> she was an angel here on earth. she is an angel up in heaven. >> horrible story. the teen's mother helped track the case actually telling police about a suspicious post on one boy's facebook page. they found autumn's bike and other belongings in the teen's home. >> another former teammate of lance armstrong admits to doping. he says he decided to come clean because of the recent doping allegations against armstrong's u.s. team. he was on his team in 2000 and 2001. he was stripped of his 7 tour

defrance titles this week. 13 days left to the presidential election. former first lady laura bush offering her own advice to former first lady michelle obama and ann rom kneel with an interview with fox news. >> i know they will be able to get there without any thoughts from me. i wish them both the best. i know people are tired. they are tired probably because they campaigned really very hard, but i also know the adrenaline rush of those last few weeks and few days and then election night. so of course i just wish them the best. >> sit down interview with megyn kelly. you can watch the entire thing on america live starting at 1:00 p.m. eastern. that is your 5@5:00. time now to brew on this. we turn to the race for the white house. it's a battle ground blitz in the final stretch. >> to say the very least.

13 days to go. president owe bam maup and governor romney are zigzagging through out the country hitting up the swing states. both candidates making last minute pushes to secure votes. >> do you think about it? do you think we can handle four more years where there are 23 million americans out of work looking for a good job? do you t do you think we can handle climbing every year. do you think we can handle four more years with declining home values? how about four more years with gasoline prices going up and up and up? are you ready for a real recovery? >> part of the reason i think it is hard for governor romney to do is your job plan doesn't really create jobs. it doesn't reduce the deficit. it adds to it. foreign policies from the 1980s. it's social policies from the

1950s. economic policies from the 1920s. so everything he is doing right now is to hide his real position and try to pwin this election. >> that leads us to this our question of the day brew on this question. in the final stretch what would you like to see from the candidates? >> send us your comments. tweet them to us at fox friends first or e-mail them to us at fox friendsfirst@foxnews.com. time for the weather forecast. first degree weather update with maria molina. >> good to see you. good morning everyone. we have a strong cold front across portions of the midwest. we have strong winds out of the south that are helping to warm things up across a very large section of the country continuing through the southeast. we are talking temperatures into the 80s across the carolinas,

georgia, mississippi, alabama portions of the plains. upper 80{caseñ]s for some of yo across texas and parts of arkansas. well above average temperatures ahead of the system. behind that system we will have a significant cool down. some will see a drop in temperatures by as much as 30 degrees. that sharp drop in temperatures is going to produce strong storms across portions of the upper midwest and across the great lakes. we are looking at the possibility of severe weather today across eastern portions of nebraska, iowa, southern minnesota and also into portions of wisconsin. isolated tornadoes will be possible in this region. heads up if you live in omaha or portions of wisconsin. damaging wind gusts also a concern as well. we have isolated showers across the northeast not a huge deal not expecting to see weather related delays moving on through. the front is quiet now but we will see the activity later on today and snow across sierra and

the northern area. good news for skiers and also seeing more snow across the northern part of the rockies and the cascades? >> thank you. pretty good forecast when you talk about 80 degrees and snow. >> the time now is 11 minutes after the top of the hour. coming up there's growing controversy over a plan to get college kids to the polls? have you heard about this? democrats offering up t-shirts and even pizza. >> update your software or risk getting stranded in the middle of nowhere. talk about the latest blitz. hmm, it says here that cheerios helps lower cholesterol

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>> 15 after the hour. a couple of quick headlines now. democrats handing out goodies for votes. they filed an official complaint accusing the democratic party of driving colorado state university students with free pizza and t-shirts if they vote. the obama xarns are way too close to the building. state law says campaigners have to be 100 feet from the polling place. another glitch for the chevy volt. it can shut down while you are driving it. they have a customer satisfaction program to fix the issue in about 4,000, 2013 models. tests showed it could catch fire. >> oo thank you very much patti ann. stories you can bank on including safety earnings reports that have some companies with a major layoff. here to tell us about it is lauren simonetti. >> good morning, heather.

>> dupont and dow chemical slashing 2 percent of the global work force after slashing the earnings outlook for the year. dow chemical cutting 5 percent of the employees and closing down 20 plants after sales fell 10 percent in the most recent quarter. zhe zen ga says it is cutting plies. >> female graduates making 8,000 less than male graduates. >> hard to believe women are earning $0.80 to the dollar as male counterparts. one year after college graduation men are making 43,000 dollars and women are making 35,000 dollars. the association of university for women says some of the reasons is men gravitate toward

higher paid industries likening nearing and are likely to put in longer hours but those are only in some situations. >> if you have been to barnes & noble lately you listened to the next story. hackers hit them. >> if you shopped at barnes & noble as recently as last month they have stolen credit card information from customers at 63 stores in california, connecticut, florida. illinois, massachusetts, new jersey, new york, pennsylvania and rhode island. they broke into the key pads where you typed in your pin numbers some made unauthorized purchases. barnes & noble are saying check your statements and change your personal identification numbers in the meantime. >> lauren simonetti from the fox business network good to see you, too. the time is 18 after the top of the hour. stocks get rocked. the dow down 200 points. what does it mean for the 401 k and will the election change

anything? vera gibbons says yes. get ready to hide your soft drinks again. another ban on big sodas coming to a city near you. i'm so glad you called. thank you.

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>> obama with the tour of the late night talk show circuit. first lady will visit jimmy kimmel live. it is her first appearance on the late night show. they are far from strangers. they sat next to each other at this year's white house correspondence dinner. president obama is on jay leno

tonight. file this one under unusual crimes to say the least. cops in connecticut say a crook stole about 70,000 dollars a week smirting under seats at movie theaters lifting credit cards from purses. the 49-year-old man charged with fraud and identity theft. can you image what's on the floor of the movie theater? >> i don't want to image but thank you. >> trouble on wall street the dow jones industrial average tanked dropping 200 points yesterday. it's the sharpest drop since june. what lies ahead? for less than two weeks in the presidential race how might the election results impact the market. here to breakdown the various scenarios is personal finance expert vera gibbons. >> let's say he wins the election and congress stays the same. >> romney's business friendly policies are off the table and

the market could take a quick dip in response to that. the attention will shift to the dreaded fiscal cliff divided congress with a quick deal on that front could be more of the same gridlock going on in the market more of the same up and down and roller-coaster ride until we get answers to the questions as they pertain to tax reform and other big issues continuing to plague the market. >> with grid locks those are gone. >> let's say mitt romney wins and gop wins control of the congress. >> it will take off for a couple of reasons businesses would be happy because they like romney's plan to cut taxes and slash regulations that would be a positive. single party control makes it more likely you would get a deal as far as taxes an spending the one wrinkle he said he would reappoint him.

that's something to think about. he is used to his style used to the liquidity he brings. concerns about tighter monetary would affect the market. they don't like his plans to tim late the economy thinks they are inflation nature -- inflation airy. >> romney wins but the congress remains divided? >> you get delayed to get us off the fiscal cliff. they would wait until he was in the white house because this was gave th give them the most leverage. with the senate you have issues pertaining to that, too. because romney would be forced to come up with more moderate proposals that cut spending and taxes. probably more moderate than he would actually like. that's something to think about as well. compromise is something that they need they have been so radically developed. some of the forecasts from the

market watchers are expecting double dig get gains in the next 24 months. a lot of it has to do with middle ground something that has been missing for way too long. vera gibbons thank you so much as always. >> 26 after the hour. still to come we are following the breaking news on the libya attack. a new report says forget 24-hours within two hours the white house knew what was going down. a pavraplegic left for dead for three-days no food, no water, no wheelchair but he made it out alive on nothing. we will tell you how. >> in 2003 the concorde made its last commercial flight. remember that? this happy couple used capital one venture miles

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>> welcome back to "fox & friends first". i am patti ann browne. >> i am heather childers. thank you for joining us. it is half past the top of the hour. >> that means it is time for the 5@5:30. we start with a fox news alert. the obama administration knew within hours an al qaeda linked group was behind the benghazi terror attacks.

the state department e-mail one entitled responsible for the benghazi attack. the group claimed responsibility for facebook and twitter and has foreign attack on embassy tripoli. john bolton says it raises more questions. >> these everybodying mails now show beyond any doubt is that the state department was fully possessed of the information in real time. it leads to the question why the administration even bothered to ask for cia assessments. all they had to do was ask the state department. >> meanwhile republican senator revealed the united states is not being allowed to question a tunisian national suspected in the attack. >> it could decide who wins the election but colorado secretary of state warning there are 300 suspected noncitizens on the state's voter roles.

he is the immigration data base. it will disenfranchise voters. >> the search resuming for this missing 10 month old girl. police say someone smached her from her grandmother's home in pennsylvania after killing the 61-year-old. in the meantime cops collect more evidence at the apartment complex where it all happened. suspects have not been named. 39-year-old surfer francisco selorio junior bid his upper tore so off of the base yesterday. his friend witnessed the whole thing. he pulled him from the water he began cpr but it was too late. >> no word on what type of shark it was. >> this story is incredible. stranded in the new mexico desert for three-days a

paraplegic man: ages to drag himself four miles down a dirt road in order to find help. ricky gilmore says a couple who he met while hitchhiking dropped him off without his wheelchair or food after he refused to share alcohol with them. 2 people road right by him but on day three a man stopped for help. he should be in the hospital for another week he should be just fine. >> with election day now closing in the presidential contenders are kicking it into high gear in those all important swing states. president obama will be campaigning in iowa, colorado, mitt romney will be in nevada and iowa. joining us live from washington, d.c. with more on this is doug luzader. hi, doug. >> unless you live in one of those battle ground states, you are probably not going to see much of the candidates at least not in person over the next 13 days as this campaign reaches a

fever pitch. you can add another 5,000 miles or so to the odometer of air force one today. as president obama passes back on board. as usual this may come down to ohio the president was in dayton yesterday. >> we know where they need to be not here not my where. we have made real progress. we have to build on that progress. we can't go back to when god t into this mess. that's why i am running for second term as president of the united states. the obama campaign says the 20 page booklet will help close the deal. president holding it up there. trying to refute the charge to the romney campaign that there is no plan. mitt romney meantime heads to n nevada and iowa after big rallies in colorado yesterday including one in red rock.

>> what you are seeing from the obama campaign is an incredibly shrinking campaign. the president is out of ideas. he is out of excuses. in november you are going to make sure he's out of office. >> they went to polls like this one gallup tracking polls nationally. there is also the rasmussen tracking poll which is similar giving romney a four-point edge with 2 percent undecided. not a whole lot of voters out there to play with. part of the national picture is concerned they see that breaking down. the yellow states here are the swing states an the tossup states. 7 of them right now in play from nevada out west and new hampshire in the east. back to you guys. doug luzader thank you. the current state of the

race which state is up for grabs. here's his analysis on the o'reilly factor. >> you have basically romney at 169, obama at 184. these are electoral votes. 270 needed to win. lean obama, lean romney 37. 95 toss-up lacking at this map you would think the president obama still has the advantage to win the election but i see it as romney now has the advantage. >> i am with you. see look at that map. virginia is doing a two-week rolling average. you look at virginia last week there were five polls thursday, friday, saturday, romney won four of them. next monday there are 13 electoral votes in virginia i think will be pointed towards romney. >> north carolina they are both going to be for romney. it will come down to ohio and

one other state. today in ohio romney leads. romney in ohio and you have a barn burner. >> the reason i am talking about it. thursday and saturday of last week. >> make sure to stick around this morning on fox and friends later. they will have a look at the latest polls from rasmussen reports. >> we are going to talk about them with a real clear politics polling average a little later in our show. time for the first degree weather update with maria molina. good morning maria. >> good morning everyone. we are tracking a strong cold front out across portions of the plains ahead of this system. we are talking about temperatures 20 degrees above average in the 80s across kansas city and texas even into the southeast. cold air behind this front. some of you will see the temperatures drop by as much as

40 degrees. 41 the temperature today in rapid city. you are seeing some of the impact from the colder air heading southward. we have a possible because of the strong front across portions of the midwest of severe weather with isolated tornadoes possible damaging wind gusts possible across eastern portions of nebraska up across parts of wisconsin. they will be firing up later on this afternoon. currently maximum sustained winds at 50 miles per hour. making land fall later today as a category 1 hurricane. it is forecast over open waters. there are computer models heather and patti ann pointing up the track up the east coast causing issues for us in the northeast in new york city as we head into early next week. still some time to go. >> maria, thank you. it is time to entertain this. justin timberlake making music

once again. the singer turned actor debuted a new song at his wedding for wife jessica beil. no word if it will be released to the public. the couple officially splitting up after three months tooth. sources say their 12 year age difference and her hollywood lifestyle are to blame. they are giving new mean to go the term family film. two more of angelina jolie's kids have been cast in mal live sent. it's a remake of sleeping beauty. 8-year-old packs and 7-year-old zahara she is playing the younger versi -- vivian is play younger version of princess aurora. >> sports stories making news at this hour. familiar mouse catcher pal ston fits busted for dui. they found the 64-year-old behind the wheel unconscious in a cornfield. he was taken to the hospital for treatment and then released

after posting bail. the giants and tirings took the field for game one of the world series. they will send barry guito to the mound. just tin ger lander will hit for the tirings. it begins at 8:00 p.m. one and done firing manager ozzie gean after one season. the team finished last in the nl east. his comments phrasing fidel cast grow. >> the time now 40 minutes after the hour. caught on camera a man narrowly escapes death seconds after his car bursts into flames. >> with 13 days to go the new poll numbers. where it stands and why it may come down to one simple state.

>> 43 after the hour. here are quick headlines. the number of meningitis cases topping 300 this morning. 23 people have died investigators say they found unclean conditions at the pharmacy where the shots behind the outbreak were mixed. and dramatic moments caught on surveillance video five police officers pulling them to safety just before his overturned suv burst into flames. the man reportedly lost control of the suv in the parking lot of a hospital. he had severe burns but is expected to make a full recovery. heather? >> 13 days to go the presidential candidates heading to the battle ground to the final stretch. where do they now stand in the polls and where can we see the results in the results? katelyn thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> the overall average where it

stands right now we have romney in the lead. >> by just a few tenths of a point. that shows tnationally. >> 48 percent mitt romney president obama 47.1. that is definitely a barn burner as we heard someone say earlier. let's take a look at the key swing states. this is where the candidates are really focusing their time right now. for example today in campaigning in iowa, colorado and nevada is president obama. if you take a look at the map iowa you have president obama up by two, romney up by 2 and nevada, obama up by two there. mitt romney also focusing on the states in nevada and iowa today. what does this map tell you? >> it is interesting to look at where the candidates go. where they think they can either do well and where they really need to rev you it up and turnout voters. we will see the president travel

to virginia later this week for example. he went straight to ohio yesterday after the debate. and romney camp will be there as well. by going to those battle grounds it will square the program. >> okay. so we have to talk about ohio. we are hearing a lot about it in these final days. by the way in case you didn't know, no republican has ever won the white house without winning ohio. right now take a look at this poll. this is where it stands, correct? president obama 47.9 percent in ohio and mitt romney 46 percent. so it is a close one. >> it is very close in ohio. we have seen a couple polls in the past couple weeks that have shown obama's lead actually narrowing a little bit. ohio is one of those places that the obama campaign thought they could do really well because of the auto bailout. they could reach a lot of voters that way. the fact that it is a close race there is also very telling. if romney could win ohio i think they could put this team away.

>> 18 electoral college votes up for grabs. 270 needed to win the election. so it's all down to the numbers right now. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> it is fun to watch the numbers go back and forth. >> don't forget it is your last chance to enter our question of the day in this final press to election day. what would you like to see the candidates -- what would you like to see from them? one college away from t. christian football stands church. there is a major update to this story we will tell but it up next. and now before we go we are going to check in with steve doocy. it's coming up on fox and friends. >> good morning heather nice to see you on this rainy wednesday morning here in new york city. coming up it looks like the state department has cables out within hours after the attack in libya it shows that they knew it was a terror attack. we are going to be talking with

the senator of the great state of georgia about that. also 13 day brothers we do voting herman cain is going to talk about all things political. we are also going to have larry sabito the university of virginia professor and herman cain who would have liked to have been president will drop by as well. you know them you love them the band chris. the drummer of kiss peter chris has written a book "makeup to break up" it's all here on the fox news channel. {flushñ] ately.

but because of business people like you, things are beginning to get rolling. and regions is here to help. making it easier with the expertise and service to keep those wheels turning. from business loans to cash management, we want to be your partner moving forward. so switch to regions. and let's get going. together.

>> it is 51 after the top of the hour. christian students suing utah college for banning religious symbols in their homecoming

decorations. they told them religious messages were quote in poor taste. the school says it's a simple misunderstanding. an upda to the story we told bu yesterday. apologizing for air brushing off the crosses on the christian fan's bodies. the school says in the future it will use another photo for its cover rather than making similar edits. more big things coming out of apple or should we say small things. the company just unveiled the ipad minnie. how does this tablet stand up to the competition? here to explain from fox business network is diane macedo. good morning. >> apple jumped into the small tablet market with a 7.9 inch ipad system. it may be small but the price tag is anything but with competitors like kindle fire hc the mini ipad starts at hire

than expected $329 for the 16 gig bite yie wi-fi version. that will cost you $659 more than the comparable full size ipad. the device is worth the premium. >> this is a slunk endown ipad it's an entirely new design with aluminum glass enclosure where every detail is finely crafted ex quizity. >> the mini ipad raises the bar a bigger screen lighter package and thousands more apps available. but they still doubt the price difference especially in when it is late in the game. >> it is selling well. it caught apple by surprise it has been so successful. >> apple's future with some

saying without steve jobs the company has upgraded devices but hasn't shown any real innovation. it sent shares down 3 percent. with 100 million i pads sold apple can afford to take a chance like this the ipad mini one way or the other will be a popular gift this holiday season. >> i bet you are right about that. thank you. now it is time for your brew on this responses 13 days to go before the election we wanted to know what you would like to see from the candidates in this final stretch. >> tracy e-mailed us saying i would like to see president obama and what he would reveal. how he will solve the economic problems in america. >> kevin tweets i would like to see them stay on point and talk about the issues instead of slinging mud at each other like little kids. >> thank you to everyone who

responded. keep your comments coming. we always appreciate it. the time now is 54 after the top of the hour. and the prank was supposed to be on him but he's the one pulling the pranks. check out the river dancing jeans part of the good, the bad and the ugly. can you guess which one he is? first can you check out the word of the day. something we will talk about. stick around for the answer. [ male announcer ] this is steve.

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- >> 's a minute until the top of the hour. first of the good. a senior prank . a student decided to show off fancy foot work in the hall. the dean instead of getting angry joined in.

his irish jig has become a utube sensation . next the bad. the bad on the war on soda. first new york city banned sugary drirchings larger than 16 ounces and washington d.c. city council is taking up the issue . and a memphis mom is accused of faking her daughter's death for money. she said she had died of an asmaattack. she collected donations and then her co-workers discovered the truth and called police. >> it is time to get scrambled up. gretchen carlson is here to help us. >> this one is stumping me . >> this is a long